Imposter
by Vincent von Dreyfus
Summary: The sad tale that should have been told a long time ago. Lulu is ecstatic that Mikau has returned, but Mikau doesn't seem to share the feeling. Now that Termina is saved, the truth must come out; even if it will scar a young Zora for eternity. MM outro


**A Note from the Author:** I think it's so strange that despite the obvious potential for a beautiful (though very sad) story, there aren't any stories on FF that are about Lulu discovering that Mikau was actually Link. He has to say good-bye sooner or later, right? Well, I decided that story had to be told. It's not my best, and it's only a single chapter, but I hope you like it.

Please review when you're done! I'll read every single one. Loads of thanks to those who already have.

As of Tuesday, June 16, 2009, I have updated this fine specimen; just fleshed it out, but the night that I originally posted this I just felt that there were so many things left unsaid. So this is the revised version.

And just to be clear, I forgot the name of the percussionist, but I think it was Tijo.

The "~" denotes how much of a break things are. "~" denotes Lulu's flashback, "~~~" denotes a secondary flashback, "~~~~~" denotes a passage of time.

Everything (c) Nintendo

* * *

The Indigo-Go's performance in the Festival of Time the previous year was a big hit. Lulu could still remember every note and every word of their song, and everything that followed that evening. Most importantly, she remembered Mikau.

After their performance, the fish-like Zoras stepped off of the stuffy Milk Bar stage to allow the Gorman Troupe to perform their acts. As the band members put away their instruments, Lulu, the vocalist, squeezed her mate's arm lovingly. "Mikau, darling," she cooed, her voice like dolphins playing on a sunny day, "let's go get something to drink. I hear the _Chateau de Romani_ is excellent tonight!"

Mikau grinned, his teeth whiter than the jaws of the gargantuous masked fish, Gyorg. He put his fish-bone guitar in its case, made sure the case was locked, and stood up. "Is it really that good?" he replied.

Lulu made a mock thoughtful face. "Oh, I hear its taste is infinitely magical."

Mikau shrugged. "Whatever you say, Lulu."

"Bravo, bravo!" Toto, the Indigo-Go's' manager, clapped as the band member's aching feet dropped onto the cold floor, sore from withstanding their long performance. "That last number was especially captivating, Evan!" Toto added, patting the band leader's olive oil-colored back. "Good job coming up with it, the crowd loved it!"

Evan, the keyboardist, composer, and leader of the Indigo-Go's, bowed. "It was no problem, Toto. I thoroughly enjoyed writing it."

Japas, the bassist, left Mikau and Lulu and walked backwards back to Evan and Toto. "Evan, my man," he interrupted, "did I just hear what I thought I heard?" Japas' laid-back, almost-Labrynna accent was such a deep contrast from the other residents of Termina that Toto and Evan instantly knew it was him before they even saw him. "Dude, did you just say you wrote _my_ song? Not cool, man. Not cool at all."

"Look, Japas," Evan snapped. Of the band members he was the serious one, and he spoke very directly and sternly. "I write the songs. Just because you wrote those little notes and gave me some inspiration doesn't mean you wrote it."

"Those little notes were the main melody of the song, man. That groove wasn't just inspiration--it was the entire song!"

"If I recall, your little jam session didn't have parts for keyboard, percussion, or even vocals."

"Lulu lost her voice, dude; this was Mikau's and my back-up plan."

"Well what about the other instruments?" Evan countered angrily.

"Gentlemen, please, let's do this some other time!" Toto cried, quieting them both. "You're interrupting Guru-Guru's Breman March!" Japas and Evan eyed one another angrily, but nodded.

Lulu and Mikau had been watching the scene from their bar stools. "Those two are such opposites, aren't they?" Lulu giggled.

Mikau nodded his head happily. "That they are, Lulu," he smiled. Lulu grinned back to be polite, but inside she was worried. The events of the previous days, when it all started, began to wheel in her head.

It had all started with the Great Bay Temple. On a spooky night, midnight three days ago, a hurricane struck the Great Bay. That very night Lulu had laid her and Mikau's eggs; it had been and hour later that the hurricane hit. She and Mikau had been out back behind the Zora Hall relaxing in the moonlight, Mikau clueless to his wife's recent struggle. The storm hit so suddenly that they didn't know what happened. Japas had burst out of the Hall and screamed, "Dude and dudette, get inside now! This hurricane's gonna rip the whole ocean apart!" They were just getting up when there was a crash behind them, and as lightning lit up the sky they saw a horned fish the size of a whale porpoising towards the ocean temple. In that brief bit of light, its eyes rested solely on Lulu.

The storm had passed by morning, but a great waterspout lingered around the Great Bay Temple. Rumors had already spread about the giant fish Gyorg, and how the waters in the bay were growing murky, warm, and dangerous. Word spread from Clock Town telling of a strange masked imp, and of how the moon was not only visible in the daytime but was growing larger. Most in the bay's resort panicked and left. The Zoras remained dutifully, but that was their next mistake.

By noon a particular rumor reached the Gerudo pirates in the northern part of the bay, a rumor about immense treasure horded by Gyorg in the temple. The only way into the temple was through the usage of Zoran eggs. Somehow, though Lulu would never understand how, the pirates knew she had eggs. Three days before their performance in Clock Town, Lulu's eggs were brutally stolen by the pirates. As some strange result, Lulu lost her voice. Though she tried to hide it as long as she could, in the end Lulu had no choice but to inform first Evan and then the father. Mikau immediately left in search of the eggs. "Don't leave the hall, Lulu," Mikau had ordered, kissing her on the lips before diving into the murky waters of the Zora Cape. "I'll be back soon; wait for me! You'll be talking again in no time! I love you!" With a loud splash he was gone, and she waited.

Mikau didn't return for a long time, but Lulu awaited loyally for his appearance from the backside of the Zora Hall, scanning with hopeful eyes towards the coastline. It wasn't until late the next evening that Mikau finally returned with the eggs. Lulu was immediately delighted to see her husband safe and sound, and was even more surprised when he played the song her mother taught her, the New Wave Bossa Nova, on his guitar. The strums and lyrics brought her voice back. The very first words she spoke were, "Mikau, my darling, you're alright!" What happened next would be burned into her memory forever. Her voice brought to life a giant sea turtle, which for so long she had believed to be a small island. It told Mikau to purify the Great Bay Temple, and the guitarist duly responded.

Mikau left without even saying good-bye. Lulu had turned away only for a moment; she heard the clinking of metal, and when she turned back around Mikau and the turtle were gone. "Mikau?" she called. "I love you!" Her words echoed across the ocean. Deep inside the Great Bay Temple, a Zora's eyes watered.

Lulu was left to await Mikau's return once again. This time, however, she had a new concern. Not content with being quiet with her voice now back, she contacted Japas, Mikau's best friend, for help. The Zora was lounging on a chair, his hair-like fins covering his eyes, lazily observing the miniscule parasites falling off his head-tail as he combed it. Having his own well-known crush on Lulu, it wasn't remarkable that Japas immediately noticed her seaweed perfume the moment she entered his lair. "Hey, Lulu baby," he greeted, waving with his free hand. "Did you see Mikau yet? He just got back this afternoon. He and I are working on a new jam session, it's pretty cool. I just hope Evan won't skin our bones for coming up with a song without him." Japas laughed, almost to himself. "He can be pretty tyrannical sometimes, can't he?" He let his head-tail go and allowed it to drop gently down until it brushed against the back of his chair. The bassist shook his head. "Evan, Evan, whatever will we do with you?" Lulu smiled politely. Japas set his comb down and motioned with a webbed hand at another chair across from his, then switching on a lava lamp on a table beside him. "Here, baby, have a seat. I was just about to enjoy some groovy Romani Milk, why don't you join me?" He grabbed a milk carton beside the lava lamp and poured its contents into two wine glasses. An odd custom for Termina was how it treated milk; whereas other countries would celebrate occasions with drinks such as wine or beer, the calcium-loaded milk of a cow was the most popular drink in the strange-yet-modern world of Termina.

Lulu sat herself down and took a glass from Japas, careful not to knock his nearby bass down with her enormous fins. "Hello, Japas," she grinned awkwardly. Japas' jaw dropped and he did a double take. "Pleased to hear my voice?" she added with a hint of embarassment.

Japas had trouble finding his words. The beautiful, warm voice of their band's lead singer was music to his ears, and was almost hypnotic in the way that it soothed his troubles. Once again, he felt jealous towards the band's guitarist for courting her first, but Mikau was such a good friend that he didn't hold it against him. "Lulu!" Japas gasped, an incredulous look plastered on his face. "Y-Your voice! I thought you lost it!"

Lulu giggled, her laughter no different than a dolphin's. She had to put a hand up to her mouth to keep herself from continuing. "Japas, shut you mouth!" she scolded playfully, her beautiful voice intermingling with her golden laughter until they merged into one joyful sound. It had felt like ages since she had last laughed, and this added to its genuine feel. In that short moment, there was not a happier sound in Termina, Labrynna, and Hyrule combined. "You look like a white goldfish when you do that! Or... Or like a River Zora about to spit fire at somebody! Shut that mouth before I call the Clock Town Guard, you silly thing!" Japas shut his mouth with a hand. The scales around his face were a crimson red. Lulu noticed what she did to her lovestruck friend, and made her best attempt to calm down. "Mikau brought it back," she explained, reminding Japas of where he lay in her hierarchy of love. "Who knew that the cure would be the song my mother taught me--you remember, our first hit single?"

Japas took her hint and swallowed his feelings. He leaned back and put an arm over the back of his chair. "Who would have thought it? The New Wave Bossa Nova, with its words of keeping music in the world, would bring the sweet melody of your beautiful voice back. Congratulations on getting your words back, baby. And glad to hear you and Mikau are together and groovy again. Perhaps we'll still be able to jam at the Festival of Time now."

Lulu's smile faded and her eyes lowered. "About Mikau... Japas, have you noticed anything _different_ about him?"

Japas' huge grin vanished. He drew forward on his chair and clasped his hands together. "Yeah, baby, I have. He's seemed a little less groovy lately. And that's not all; he's been nicer since getting back too. Doesn't even seem to be annoyed with Evan now; he told me he still hated Evan's guts, but he sure didn't sound all that convincing. Where's your man now?"

Lulu crossed her arms uncomfortably and flicked her fins nervously. "He left for the Great Bay Temple just a few minutes ago," she mumbled in a low voice.

Japas jumped from his seat. "What!?" he exclaimed. "He'll be pulverized! He can't survive the Dragon Cloud!"

"No, no, he's riding a giant turtle," Lulu replied with a sigh. "I think it's the temple guardian or something; I'm sure he'll be alright."

Japas lowered slowly back into his chair. "Oh... Okay. Giant turtle. Groovy."

"Anyway, he left without a word. No 'hello,' no 'are you alright,' not even a good-bye or an 'I love you.' He hardly even noticed me, besides acknowledging me politely with a nod. It was as if he knew me and my problem, but otherwise thought me a complete stranger."

Even behind his fin-hair, Lulu could tell Japas raised an eyebrow. "A stranger? Mikau, thinking you a stranger? Man, that's totally not cool."

"I was wondering if you knew what was going on with him... Do you?"

"Is that the only reason why you came to see me, baby?" Lulu raised an eyebrow and frowned. Japas waved his hand to calm her down. "Hey now, you know I'm only kidding. I think something happened to Mikau after he left. He even _looks_ kinda different, doesn't he? I don't recall him ever wearing shoes over his feet, let alone _boots_. And has his head-tail always been so _green_?"

"No, not really..."

"Do you think he might be an imposter?"

Lulu shook her head. "Not a chance. He may not seem to know me, but I certainly know him. That's my Mikau; I'd stake my life and the lives of our children on it."

"That's a pretty big stake. But it was just a theory anyway. I'm sure he's just still troubled by the condition of the bay. In a day or two he'll be fine and groovy again."

Mikau came back from the temple a hero, but things didn't return to normal. Despite rumors all over the country that the grave conditions of the land were improving, Mikau seemed restless and distant. It wasn't long before Lulu realized that for whatever reason, he couldn't and wouldn't stay for long. A night before the night of the festival, the night of the very same day that he returned, Mikau left again. This time, the conditions were even stranger.

Lulu was getting ready for bed, kissing her newly-hatched children good night, when she heard her husband in the other room practicing his guitar. He was playing a melody she had never heard. It was beautiful, yet somewhat sad; she thought it sounded like the song people of a foreign land might have sung to some god or goddess in some critical point in history. When Lulu entered to ask what song it was, her husband was gone. There was a note on the table which read, "All is not well just yet; there are things I have to attend to. I'll see you at the Festival. With love, Mikau."

Lulu clutched the paper to her chest. "Oh Mikau," she whispered. "What is going on?"

As promised, Mikau returned like a knight in shining green armor. His timing was perfect.

In a great climax to all the troubles in the past few days, to everybody's horror the Moon made a great plummet towards the Clock Tower on the eve of the Festival of Time. Yet in the first few minutes of the festival the four giants of Termina arrived and saved the day. Everybody watched the Moon in fear and confusion; people of every race--Termanian, Deku, Monkey, Goron, Zora, and Gerudo alike--comforted one another and prayed to live another day. Even the Ikana and Garo, long dead yet in the past three days brought back to life by two vile masked serpents, put their conflicts to rest and stood together in anticipation of the end of Termina as they knew it. In a mere hour, the giants cause the moon to evaporate back into the heavens in a rainbow-like cloud of smoke. Everybody could continue the festival as planned, celebrating their survival, the success of the giants, and the new bonds they shared in a land where just days ago the races hardly spoke to each other. Everybody was brought together, and the Festival was celebrated with such newfound ferocity that by the next year it would be renamed the World Fair, celebrating all the country's people as a single entity. Ikana shared stories with Garo; Deku opened their borders to Gerudo and Termanians; Gorons and Zoras put their differences aside and played as they once did long ago.

Mikau didn't arrive at the Indigo-Go meeting place--outside the inn in the east wing of Clock Town--until after the Moon was gone. He was out of breath, but a huge smile was on his face. "I can't believe it!" he exclaimed to himself. "I did it! At last I can relax!"

A cry came from near the Deku Flower in the town square. "Mikau! Oh, darling, you're alright!" In moments, Mikau was given a loving hug by his wife Lulu, tears trickling from her face like a joyous waterfall. "Did you see the Moon? We almost died! And can you believe it? All our other troubles are gone too! Evan even let us perform the song you and Japas came up with. Aren't you excited?" She kissed Mikau on the lips. "Oh, it really has been so long. I missed you so much."

Mikau shifted uncomfortably and looked away. "Y-Yeah," he mumbled, his voice a little scratchy. "I missed you too, Lulu." He put his scaly arms awkwardly above her fins and across her back.

"Oh Mikau, now we can be together again forever!"

"Yeah... Forever..."

Their embrace was interrupted by Toto. "What's that about relaxing, Mikau?" he demanded. "I hope you haven't forgetten about our concert!"

So in the end, Mikau and Lulu sat happily together at the Milk Bar, drinking their glasses of milk and having a good time. "Mikau, what do you think will happen now?" Lulu asked dreamily, staring lovingly into Mikau's eyes. "Our children have hatched, the bay is saved, our performance was a hit... What would you like to name your half of the kids? I'll name the other half."

Mikau's eyes darted away for a moment. "Lulu..." he mumbled, almost inaudibly.

"I'll name mine Ruto, Laruto, and Ralis. What about you?"

"Lulu..." he repeated, a bit more assertively.

"Come on, don't be shy!" Lulu batted at Mikau's head-tail. Her hand felt warm and soft, and Mikau rubbed it back with his head-tail a little before catching himself and stopping. "You can always change your mind."

Mikau looked down at his milk, seemingly searching for words. Then he sighed and turned back to Lulu, a short smile on his face. "Um... Ruto, huh? That's a name fit for a princess."

Lulu giggled. "You like it? I'm flattered!"

"Yeah... Yeah, I do..."

"So what would you name your's, my dear Gyorg Slayer?"

"Um... I'd probably name my half Medli, Martha, and...Saria."

"Saria?" Lulu made a face. "Isn't that a bit odd for a Zora?"

"It's a perfect name!" Mikau snapped angrily. His face displayed an emotion Lulu had never seen before, one she was sure he learned in a foreign country. It was the most emotion-filled face she had seen him make since she got her voice back, and his words suddenly seemed full of spirit, if only for a moment. "It's the best name in the world, Lulu." Lulu stared at Mikau, still shocked by his sudden jolt of life. In her pause he reverted. Distantly and emptily, he sighed, "...well, _I_ think so, anyway..." Mikau hung his head and stared at his glass of milk quietly for the remainder of the evening. Lulu just watched him, glad to have him back but worried about his behavior.

Near 4:00 in the morning, Tijo, the band's percussionist and Mikau's room-mate before he moved in with Lulu, sat down on a bar stool next to Mikau. "Hey Mikau," he said in his deep voice. "It's almost sunrise; Toto's thinking we should all start heading back, ya know what I mean?"

Mikau barely looked at him. "...yeah, I know." He, Tijo, and Lulu all stood up. Tijo and Lulu began to walk to the stairs out of the bar, but Mikau lingered behind. "Hey, guys?" he called. "I think Japas and I are going to have a word or two with Evan before we go. I'll catch up."

In the end, the entire band other than Toto and Lulu had gotten caught up in arguing over the copyright issues of their final song. Toto left Lulu not long after, however, because he needed to spend one more day in Clock Town to deal with post-concert business with Madame Aroma. Near daybreak, it was Lulu who had to return to the Zora Hall alone. Once again, Mikau promised he'd meet her, this time at the entrance to the Great Bay Coast; there was something he wanted to show her. Termina Field was relatively empty. The Dekus had all left the Festival early in preparation for the arrival of a Deku Ambassador from a nearby kingdom. The Gorons left second, having a long distance to travel to return to their mountain resort. Most of the Zoras had remained in Clock Town to watch Mikau and Japas take on Evan, so it was the Ikana and Garo who slinked away in the early morning shadows third. They were, however, on the opposite side of town, and so to Lulu she was the only person as far as the eye could see. As she crossed the sands of western Termina Field, she gazed up at the sky, the sun slowly approaching dawn above the ocean. "Saria..." she said to herself. "Maybe that _is_ a good name... We'll name the oddball that." She stopped and reached up to climb over the coast gate and onto the bay side. Nobody was present on the other side. "Well, Mikau, I'm waiting..."

Suddenly the wind picked up, howling past her and into the canyon pass towards the bay. The strength of the wind was enough to make Lulu scream a little, and her fins were blown in front of her face like an umbrella turning inside-out. As she struggled to clear her view she could hear the flapping of feathered wings soaring above her. The wind died down so gradually that it wasn't until it was almost completely gone that she could pull her fins from her face and see again.

"Hey, Lulu," said a voice from behind her. Spinning her webbed feet around in the sand, she discovered Mikau, leaning against the gate and investigating a white feather that he held in his hand. He walked up to her and gently held his hand out. The feather quivered in his palm. "I want you to have this," he explained quietly.

Lulu hesitantly took it. "What is it?" she whispered.

"A magic feather. It's the feather of a strange being who by whistling a mere song can travel across this country in an instant. I saw him flying by just a second ago, and I grabbed one of the feathers he dropped."

Lulu inspected the feather closely. "I wish I could have seen it. Is this what you wanted to show me?"

Mikau shrugged. "Sorta. But there's something else I have to show you."

Lulu yawned and stretched her arms. "Can't it wait until tomorrow? It's almost dawn and I'm sleepy. And you know, we haven't gotten under the covers together in a long time." She dipped towards Mikau and he caught her. As he held her in his arms she caressed his bare, scaly chest with a finger. "I think now's the night."

Mikau began to smile but suddenly gulped nervously and stepped back. "No," he insisted assertively, "I have to show you this tonight. There isn't any other way."

"Way to do what?"

Mikau took her hand and squeezed it. "Just follow me. I have to do this." A single tear rolled along his cheek.

Lulu stared at his eyes for a moment before they continued walking. "Mikau?" she asked quietly with concern. "What is it?" Mikau didn't answer.

The Zoran hero brought Lulu to a collection of palm trees outside the Fisherman's front yard. The sun had just begun to rise from the horizon, and its golden light caused the two Zoras' scales to shimmer and sparkle like a flickering flame of compassion. Mikau stopped as soon as they were in the shade of the palm trees. A large green fishbone stuck out of the beach sand. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, nodding toward the skeleton. Lulu shook her head questioningly. Mikau held both her hands close to him. Solemnly, almost painfully, he instructed, "Lulu, I want you to take a look at it. It's a grave."

Lulu's mouth turned dry. "A...a grave?" Mikau nodded. Lulu hesitated before looking down at the grave. There was something all too familiar about it, and she felt something biting her inside, telling her not to obey Mikau's command. Yet she was so devoted to her husband that she had to submit. Lulu dug in her dress pocket for a pair of reading glasses. Crouching down on the sand, she looked closely at the words etched on the ribs of the fish. On the grave were lyrics of two traditional Zora songs: the Zora Fight Song, and We the Zora. They were Mikau's favorite songs. "Mikau, why are your favorite songs written here?" she asked, fearing the answer with growing dread and foreboding. "Was this a grave you made for a friend of your's? Whose grave is it?"

Mikau's sad black eyes quivered as he looked into his wife's pleading spectacles. She had a beautiful face. Her face captivated him, and fond images of their children frolicking in the water wafted into his mind. He couldn't bear this for much longer, but it was as he said: there was no other way. With a deep breath and strong will-power he quietly ordered, "Read it."

Lulu gulped and peered at the text at the top of the grave. "It says, 'Rest in peace'...'Mikau'... ...what?" Lulu stood abruptly and yanked off her glasses. Searching madly without looking for her pocket to put her glasses back in, she stared at Mikau with a mixture of confusion, horror, and sadness. "But, Mikau, this is..."

Mikau's head moved slowly up and down, eyes beginning to water. "This is my grave."

Lulu managed to put her glasses in her pocket and backed away, clutching her chest, the tide coming in on her own eyes. "But... How is that possible?" Her voice cracked. "Surely you're joking." Mikau shook his head. "But... But you're standing right in front of me! And I've felt you, you're alive!" Again, Mikau shook his head.

The guitarist's voice trembled as he replied. "I...or, at least, Mikau...died the day he left to find your eggs. The pirates were too strong for him, and the water was too polluted; the seagulls were declaring him dead before he could even get onto shore."

"Then...who are you?" Lulu failingly attempted to wipe the tears from her eyes and backed up even further. Her voice was fierce, her pupils enlarged with anxiety. "Japas was right! Why have you been lying to me? How could you be so cruel, to lie to me that my husband was alive and well when he died days ago? I could have been there for him! Why did you do this!?"

Mikau rose his hands in a disarmed gesture. He couldn't stand seeing his wife hate him. "Before this goes any farther, I want you to know: I haven't been lying to you. I am Mikau."

Lulu hissed, backing up even farther. She clutched her chest defensively. "Liar! You just told me he was dead!"

Mikau shook his head. "But I'm not _just_ Mikau. You are looking at Mikau's body after his spirit found peace in this very grave."

Lulu froze. "So you're...his ghost?"

"Wrong again. I am a wandering swordsman with the powers to inhabit the bodies of fallen warriors--should they want me to. When I encountered Mikau, floating in the waves, the very first thing I did was get him to shore. He used his final breath to beg me to find your eggs and restore the coast to its rightful state. I brought him peace, and in return he gave me his body and powers. So I am Mikau, and yet, at the same time, I am not."

Lulu trembled; she didn't know whether to believe this Zora or not. "Then... Then who are you?"

"My name is Link," Link answered, lowering his hands. "The Hero of Time. I came from a distant land in search of a friend, and sooner or later found myself committed to saving this land of Termina from the Moon."

"Aha!" Lulu snarled. "It was the giants that saved us, not some swordsman!"

"I called the giants. They didn't stop the Moon; they merely halted it so that I could enter and destroy the evil within. I've been travelling through time, purifying Termina of all its evil."

Lulu peered at the ghostly feather in her fingers. "Is this...the truth?" Link nodded. His nod looked so much like Mikau's that Lulu began to weep all over again. "Then are you truly not my Mikau?"

Link struggled against Mikau's soul to answer. "No. I'm a Hylian."

"A what?"

Link rose his hands to the sides of his fish-like head and pulled it. The light-blue and green scales covering his body seemed to drain into where he pulled. His Zoran face detached from the rest of his body, and Lulu watched in horror as her husband shrunk and transformed into an 11-year old boy. Soon, all that was left of the love of her life was his face, which the boy held in the form of a mask. "...A Hylian," the blond-haired boy answered, putting a hand to his green-clad chest. His voice now lacked the odd quiver of a Zora's, and seemed so unlike and so like Mikau's that Lulu didn't know what to say. "As soon as the sun is higher in the sky I'm leaving for Hyrule. My work here in Termina is done."

"Mikau!" Lulu suddenly called, reaching out to the child.

Link frowned. "What? But my name is--"

"You said it was Link. But you also said that you are all that is left of my husband and my hatchlings' father. Please, I beg of you, let me talk to my husband one last time, even if it _is_ just his body. Whether you or I can accept it or not, you _are_ Mikau. So please, let me talk to the man I married before you leave."

Link didn't know what to do for a moment, but then nodded and slowly pulled the mask back to his face. As soon as it made contact his green hat merged with the back of his head, fins sprouted from his arms, and gills sprouted from his body as it bathed itself in shimmering silver scales. "Is...this better?" he asked nervously, turning around in a circle so she could take one last look at him. Whenever he laid eyes on her, however, he felt a pull telling him to stay with her forever. He couldn't remain near her much longer.

Lulu ran to Mikau and gave him the biggest hug he had ever experienced. She darted her open mouth to his, and together they shared the salty taste of the sea. Link didn't resist; something in that mask told him he shouldn't. As their lips separated she continued to cling to him. Tears rolled down her face. Link could see why Japas loved her so much. If he was her age, he'd love her too. "Oh Mikau... I know you are in there somewhere. I just want you to know that I waited, just like you asked. And I'll continue to wait, through time and space, until at long last we are reunited. Will you wait for me, Mikau?" She looked up at Link expectantly. Link nodded, though he wasn't sure if it was him or Mikau who was truly nodding.

"I can feel it in his bones. He'll wait for you, Lulu. He'll wait."

Lulu kissed Link once more before stepping back. Still grasping Link's webbed hands, she made a tearful smile. "In a way, I suppose I should thank you, Link. If it weren't for you, I may not have ever had the chance to see my Mikau again. And I owe you my life and voice thanks to your efforts to save Termina. I don't know where Hyrule is, but I hope that if there are any Zoras there, they'll hail you as the one who saved their brothers and sisters from complete destruction."

Link smiled warmly, tears flowing from his own eyes. "I can see them doing that. Lulu, I've learned a lot about love from you, even if I _am_ much younger than you. I'm sorry I couldn't be your husband, or your childrens' father, but I hope the best for all of you. You're a great singer, and you'll be an even greater mother." Lulu moved away as Link once again removed the face of Mikau from his body. She stared at the mask the boy now held. Link looked up at Lulu and held the mask towards her. "Lulu, I'd like you to keep this mask. I have no need for it anymore, and it contains the soul of your deceased husband. If there's anybody who should have this, it's you."

Lulu delicately grasped the sides of the mask and took it from Link. She held the mask against her chest and closed her eyes. "Strange," she noted. "I can almost hear his heart beating. Thank you, young swordsman, and farewell."

Link and Lulu paused to take one last look at each other. The sky was quickly turning blue, and across the beach the seagulls were catching their breakfast. It was time. Link shuffled in his pocket and drew an ovular blue instrument, an ocarina. "Good-bye, Lulu," he said. Taking a deep breath, he played the notes of the Song of Soaring, and for a moment the song echoed throughout the bay. The wind began to pick up speed. Enormous white wings launched themselves from Link's back and flapped hard, throwing up clouds of sand into the air. "Good-bye, Mikau!" Lulu replied. Link nodded, and with two huge flaps of his wings he vanished, a few white feathers falling until they rested on Mikau's grave.


End file.
